Does Bovada owe me anything with these 2 fails ?

Played a 5 dollar satellite which paid exactly top 4 of 44 .
Reached top 4 and the tourney kept going ... and going ..

We each tried to donk off our chips to get it to end ...
this took a good 10 minutes before I finally busted and it ended .

The targeted tourney had been going now for 15-20 minutes .

I was transfer to that table , you could see my name ( me ) in the
lobby and for some reason I couldn't sit down . Screen read " password
not valid " which was weird because I could sit down at other tables .

I tried to restart but it wouldn't allow me saying I couldn't have two
Bovada programs running simultaneously . WTF . I restarted computer .

I finally was able to sit down 800 chips short of 10k starting stack .

With 3 players until money I had one big blind left and in two hands
I would be all in . I am obviously sitting out my next hand UTG ... unless ...
I get AA . Which is exactly what I got and lost with them :/ Out on bubble .

Now if I had the the 800 extra chips , and the addition chips that I would garner
with each double up ... Im definitely sitting out UTG no matter what and making the
min cash for 100 bucks.

Do I have a case for refund or is this a case of don't play like an idiot and fall to one big blind. ?

Kind of hard to follow your story, but I think I understand:

1) Satellite malfunctioned and didn't end when it was supposed to, thus causing a 15-minute delay transferring you to the main tournament you won entry to

2) Once you were transferred to it, the software made an error and thought you had two instances of it open, and wouldn't let you play. You had to reboot, and lost 800 chips in the whole mess from blinds.

3) Much later in the tourney, you were super short and just a bit away from cashing. You got AA, went all in, and lost, thus not getting the $100 cash.


My answer:

You have no claim that the 800 chips would have earned you the cash, because everything would have played out differently. For example, sometimes it's an advantage to have a stack short enough to not fold with a piece of the flop, as you become immune to being bluffed. You can't just say, "If I started with 800 more, I'd have thousands more at this point." (This is why some people shortstack NL cash games, for example.)

However, you do have a claim that the software malfunctions kept you from sitting, and started you with 92% of the chips you were supposed to have.

It's not $100 worth of a claim, but I would call Bovada customer service, tell them the story (keep it short and simple, but state the exact technical fails which occurred), and ask if they can give you some kind of compensation such as some comp tournament tickets or whatever.

Do NOT mention the word "disconnection" and make it clear you were connected the entire time, but these software glitches first wouldn't let the tournament end, and then wouldn't let you play without these error messages.

If you mention "disconnect", they automatically blame your internet and tune everything out.

Since it's about a small amount of money, they may give you something. Don't expect $100, though. But if they give you something worth $20, you should be satisfied and take it. Maybe try to negotiate for a bit over what they offer... so if they offer four $5 satellite tickets, ask for 5. You may need to tell them what you want, though. See if they offer anything first, and then if they don't, throw out something you think they'll accept.

Do NOT do this by e-mail. It will fail.

Do NOT do this with the first rep you talk to. Go immediately to a supervisor.

Good luck.

Success

Finally called and gave the first one that answered a shot at doing what was right .

Long story short he gave me a refund for the Sat which was 5 and change . I then
thanked them for the effort and asked for a supervisor who after 15 minutes agreed
to refund the 50+5 ticket. So total it was over 60 bucks .

I , like yourself Mr. Druff , have a very good success rate for getting a refund or whatever I think is
fair in cases like this , customer service fails ...etc .

Thank you for the good advice

Great to hear this worked out.